American Horror Story season one: revisiting the Murder House

It's no secret that one of my favorite shows is American Horror Story. The show is about to start it's third season, although technically each season is actually a stand-alone mini-series so the show is an anthology of different narratives instead of a multi-season show. This, I think, has helped make it such a strong show since the writers can go into each season with a set narrative arc and they don't end up introducing red herrings or side plots that go nowhere. But, when AHS's pilot episode premiered almost two years ago, we didn't know that the structure was going to go that way. Questions about how they would maintain the freshness of the story for more than a season were often at the forefront of my mind. Now that I know better, it's even more exciting to revisit the first season. Since I know what the vision was to its completion, there are all sorts of clues, themes, and nuances to pick up on. I'm planning to go over each episode and look into the time line of the Murder House (for those who watched it already, you'll know that the show frequently used flashbacks to show different points in the house's history, not necessarily in order), and look into some overarching themes that show up. I'll try to avoid outright spoilers, but since I know what's coming obviously what I choose to focus on will be influenced since I know what's coming. So without further ado, let's step in the front door of that gorgeous evil house for the pilot episode.

How Many Robot Fights is Too Many? Suspension of Disbelief and "Pacific Rim"

Over the summer, I managed to catch a few movies in the theater. One of those was Pacific Rim, a sci-fi film stemming from the Godzilla tradition. It was my husband and his friend's pick, but I was definitely willing to give it a shot mostly owing to the involvement of Guillermo del Toro. I loved del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth and The Orphanage, and read his Strain trilogy (perhaps more on that another time), so I'm willing to give him a chance even outside of genres that normally draw me in. And Pacific Rim was pretty fun; it had some interesting characters, in particular the female lead Mako Mori who subverts some traditional movie tropes. But, my nitpick-y self had some issues with it, and after watching the movie I spent a lot of time thinking about where I draw the line in my suspension of disbelief. Spoilers follow.

On Time Tuesdays: Is "Hannibal" already feasting on leftovers?

I really wanted Hannibal to turn into a great show. But we're 4-ish episodes in, and it's already turning into another formulaic procedural drama with a little more gore. Criminal Minds has already ripped off the best of Thomas Harris for weekly installments; to work, Hannibal needed to focus on something other than increasingly farfetched serial murders that could be solved in the span of an hour. After episode 3, I was hopeful that it was turning in that direction. But then, the latest episode aired and I'm feeling pretty cynical towards the show.

Art Crushes: Gianlorenzo Bernini

I am an art nerd. I grew up going to museums, volunteering summers as a docent, drawing, and eventually studied art history, which led to several lucky trips abroad. For art lovers, there are moments you always remember, when you see a work that really moves you for the first time. For me, one of these happened in my first art history survey in college. My school, rather than having two surveys covering the entirety of art history, broke it down into several specifications. The first one I took was Renaissance and Baroque. My professor eventually became my advisor, and one day in class she put up a slide that took my breath away: Gianlorenzo Bernini's David.

On Time Tuesdays: Is "Hannibal" Worth Sitting Down With A Glass of Chianti?

NBC's new series Hannibal has aired two episodes now, giving some hints at what the show might be leading towards and setting up its cast of characters. For those who are even more behind than I am, Hannibal is a prequel to the original Hannibal Lecter trilogy made most famous by the 1991 film The Silence of the Lambs. The original three novels and corresponding movies all take place after Hannibal has been caught and incarcerated (a later fourth book, Hannibal Rising, examines Hannibal as a child and young man, but is rather disconnected from the original trilogy), and although we get snippets of Hannibal's original crime spree, the new series is the first narrative to show Hannibal when he was an uncaught serial killer.

On Time Tuesdays: Walking Dead Season 3 in Review

Last Sunday was the season 3 finale of The Walking Dead, AMC's zombie thriller that I have discussed previously as one of the better examples of horror TV at the moment. Season 3 was fairly strong overall, but it still had its ups and downs as it constructed a new societal system for the main band of survivors and developed a conflict between their group and another community nearby. I hope the show will continue to strengthen in season 4--I wonder if some of the difficulties they've faced haven't been due to the transition from a six episode format in the first season to a more traditional thirteen and sixteen episode arc in seasons 2 and 3 respectively. Season 1 was all action; with more episodes, the show had more time to spend on exposition and character development but it didn't always seem like it was sure where it was going. (If you haven't yet seen Season 3, spoilers follow.)

Beasts of the Southern Wild: Magical Realism in the American South

I actually tried to see Beasts of the Southern Wild while it was still in theaters; my friend and I actually got together to go and the theater was sold out. We ended up seeing Celeste and Jesse Forever, so it was not a total loss by any means, but one of my biggest regrets about this awards season was having seen so few of the nominees before the ceremonies, particularly this show. It's odd to cheer for a film you haven't even seen yet. I can't completely blame the sold out theater, though--I did get the DVD from Netflix before the Oscars and I still didn't watch it in time.

After all of that anticipation, of course Beasts was not exactly how I expected it to be in my head, but it was a fantastic movie. Much has been said about star Quvenzhané Wallis' Oscar nominated performance, making her the youngest actress nominated for the award. (I find it very interesting that Emmanuelle Riva's nomination this year also made her the oldest person nominated for Best Actress--there seem to be far fewer Best Actor nods at such far ends of the spectrum, and I wonder if it isn't telling that really juicy roles for actresses come with roles when women are not seen as romantic interests as much, but I digress.) Beasts is proof positive that waiting for the ideal people to make a film can make or break it.